Old timer at the Chattanooga hammer-in showed me how to read a heat color by the shadows

I spent about 2 years just guessing on when to quench. This guy walks up, maybe 70 years old, watches me for a minute. He says "you're looking at the color too bright. Look at the shadow under the steel. That's where the real temperature shows." I tried it on a 1095 blade and my hardening got way more consistent. Has anyone else heard of this trick or is it just something the old guys kept to themselves?

2 comments

2 Comments

jamesmason13d agoOG Member

Learned that trick the hard way myself... spent a whole summer making letter openers before I figured out I was quenching too hot. Guess that makes me the slow learner in the club.

loganhart13d ago

Ha! At least you were making something useful. I spent two weeks trying to figure out why my camping knives kept snapping and yeah, same problem. Hey, slow learners just remember the lesson better, right?